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I, like most humans, am selfish. I am selfish because of my reasons. But before this all becomes clear, let me begin at my major. I am a health science major.

This major is defined as “the study, research, and knowledge of health and the application of that knowledge to improve health, cure diseases, and understand how humans and animals function”.

This definition makes the field sound courageous and selfless, saying it is a knowledge to “improve health” and “cure disease”. But I question how admirable this field really is.

George Mason University states that the program I am in will prepare its graduates to “function as managers and clinicians in a variety of settings such as hospitals, clinics, community health, schools, home care, long term care, employee health, managed care organizations, group medical practices, manufacturing, medical technology and supply organizations, the health insurance industry and financial consultant services.” Due to my lack of experience, I know nothing about these positions in these organizations.

What do these people really do on a day to day basis? Are they really curing diseases and saving the world?

Personally, that is not my aim. I do not envision myself curing anything. Rather, what drew my to this field was the human struggle. I was talking freely with a friend of mine when she told me, “Everyone goes through the struggle of life.” In that statement she was truthful and the difference between each person is how they deal with their struggle.

This is where it becomes clear why I am selfish. I want to witness the human struggle through different types of people. Why? I believe that witnessing difficulty upon difficulty give a good perspective on what is really difficult. I want to advance within myself to be stronger and wiser. Therefore, I am selfish.

I am not against helping people. I do not turn away from that. I am patient, understanding, and thorough, qualities that are very useful in dealing with human beings.

I do believe I would have been a great doctor had I chosen that route but I did not. Instead I stayed in the field and took an easier way to be close to where the “human struggle” is apparent.

After I graduate with some experience, I would like to work with MSH, Management Sciences for Health. This organization is a private, nonprofit educational and scientific organization working to close the gap between what is known about public health problems and what is done to solve them.

After the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, MSH along with several other organizations worked with Pakistan’s health sector to improve the health conditions for people in the affected areas. Such work is commendable and inspiring.

Traveling to help devastated people in a distraught land is something I would not hesitate for a moment to do.

I would like to travel the world to see how people are living.

To me, Hearing stories on the news and seeing pictures is not enough. I want to see with my own eyes. And then I want to take action. There are children which are neglected health wise due to lack of health policies.

I believe working in the health field humbles you. I strive to improve and promote health in my own life. Health is about healing; sometime people need to heal from the inside, emotionally, before they heal from the outside.

Through health recognition and promotion, people can improve their day to day lives and when it comes down to it everyone wants to improve their daily life, in order to improve their whole life.

Summary of Changes

My essay was like a butterfly. It went through a morphing process with changes, additions, deletions, making it what it is in its final form.

In the exploratory draft, I did not really know what my subject matter would be. I just typed out whatever I thought would be sufficient material to include. The essay was unfocused with many loose ends.

The comments written by my classmates helped me better understand what I wanted to write about. I used many of the questions they asked to bring in topics I could include in the working draft.

I began to focus the subject matter while making the exploratory draft the working draft. I added a much better introduction, introducing the theme of being selfish.

I decided to keep that theme alive though the whole essay, so I wrote with that objective.

I deleted some of the fluff I had in the exploratory draft while keeping certain parts of the that served my purpose well, like the definition of health science, what the program prepares its graduates for, and information about MSH.

My goal to improve the working draft was to enhance the information, keeping the essay flowing and clear.

I changed my introduction a bit adding the part about my love of art. Since I added that bit of information I strung it along through parts of the essay relating art to health science. I changed parts of the working draft to include more information.

The essay is as long as I could make it without me feeling like I ran out of significant information to include. Finally, I concluded the final draft changing the conclusion I had in the working draft to be more precise, clear, and final.